Vegetable

Baby leeks, sautéed until meltingly tender and arranged end to end, top this showstopping first course. Other components include Niçoise olives and two types of cheese—one fresh (Pavé d’Affinois, a soft cow’s milk cheese similar to Brie); the other aged (Parmigiano-Reggiano). If you can’t find baby leeks, you can use regular leeks, or if it’s springtime, look for ramps at a farmers’ market.

Elegantly piped ruffles of whipped cream and a fluted crust make for a decidedly more stylish version of the holiday classic. The velvety pumpkin mousse filling is flavored with all the traditional Thanksgiving spices—ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice—and a healthy dose of brandy for good measure. Graham-cracker crumbs are combined with cocoa powder in the crust.

Facial features for these grinning jack-o’-lanterns are carved from piecrust instead of pumpkins. Chilling the pastry cutouts helps ensure crisp, clean edges, and baking them separately from the tarts keeps them from shrinking into the spiced pumpkin filling.

Serve this tart at a Halloween party, and watch as unsuspecting guests get lured into its chocolate web. The lightly spiced chocolate crust is coated with melted chocolate, then filled with creamy pumpkin purée. More melted semisweet chocolate is piped in a spiderweb pattern to add a frightful finish; the web also serves as an excellent guide for slicing.

In this pumpkin pie with Italian flavors, loosely arranged scraps of pasta frolla are draped over the filling to evoke a lattice design without any weaving. Pine nuts, clustered in groups of three, punctuate the grid.

Their subtle sweetness and affinity for spices make carrots a natural choice for other baked goods besides the more familiar cakes and muffins. Here, they provide an unexpected flavor for individual tarts with another surprise: pastry crusts coated in crushed gingersnaps.

In dessert making, sweet potatoes are best known as the filling for a rich, dense, single-crust Southern pie. Yet they become surprisingly light when baked in a soufflé. Here, layers of paper-thin phyllo dough overlap to form a crisp pie shell, which stands tall as the filling cools and sinks (this is one soufflé that’s supposed to fall).

The filling for this Italian-style tart begins with a flavorful reduction of port wine and brown sugar; half a fresh Thai chile is added for a subtle—but entirely optional—bit of heat. Start with the best fruit you can find. Small, oval Italian prune plums are firmer and sweeter than other plums; plus, since they are a freestone fruit, their pits are not attached to the flesh and are therefore easily removed.

This timesaving alternative to traditional pumpkin pie doesn’t rely on a baked custard for its silky texture. Instead, cream cheese, gelatin, and evaporated milk are combined to create an easy no-bake filling. You can make the crust up to two days ahead; wrap well and store at room temperature before filling.

A signature holiday pie—pumpkin—is reinterpreted as a dinner-party dessert for any time of year. If you don’t have the exact pans called for, just be sure that the pastry shells are slightly larger than the flans.

It’s fun to tinker with a familiar formula to create an altogether different dessert. In this twist on pumpkin pie, acorn squash is sweetened with honey and spiced with cinnamon and ginger for the filling, while cornmeal lends texture and flavor to the crust. The checkerboard pattern on the piecrust’s edge is simple to do—just snip the dough along the rim at even intervals and bend every other section back toward the center. Don’t skip the step of chilling the pie shell before baking—it’s crucial to helping the edge retain its shape.

Making a single-crust pie is a natural next step after a free-form galette (page 22). Here, the filling—a custard of pumpkin purée, eggs, and evaporated milk—is quickly mixed by hand in one bowl. The pie’s simple construction offers an excellent opportunity to experiment with embellished edges, such as a wreath of autumn leaves (pictured), made with a one-inch leaf cutter, or a wheatlike braid (pictured on page 325; you will need one whole recipe pâte brisée for the shell plus the braid). The key to a great pumpkin pie is to partially bake the crust—called blind baking—before adding the filling. The twice-baked crust stays firm and crisp beneath the creamy custard.

This is far and away the most popular salad at the Shop, where we serve a handful to accompany every sandwich. We prefer Fuji apples because they are crisp and acidic and balance the peppery arugula and sweet apple cider dressing. In most of the restaurants we’ve worked in, chives are used as a garnish and rarely as an ingredient, but their mild, oniony flavor is absolutely key in this salad. In a pinch, scallions can be used in place of the chives.

This is a great, lighter alternative to a Caesar salad—it hits all the same taste notes without the heavy creamy dressing. Don’t be afraid of the anchovies in the Salsa Verde. The strong flavor melts away and you’re left with a subtle complexity. If you don’t say anything, no one will ever know that they’re in there. Celery is another of those often-underappreciated vegetables that is worth highlighting, and this salad does just that.

While these tomatoes are especially delicious in this salad, make a double batch so you can toss them with roasted veggies, steamed green beans, or sautéed spinach, or spread them as a condiment on your next sandwich. These can be made ahead and kept tightly covered in the fridge for up to one week.

Grilling gives these balls a nice smoky flavor, but if you’re short on time or energy, you can also just warm them in the oven or microwave them, if you prefer. The salad comes together quickly if you use canned beans, and you should always have a stash of our apple cider vinaigrette in the fridge (it can keep for three weeks).

When it’s summer, especially in August, when the zucchini, corn, and tomatoes are at their peak, we love to fire up the grill for this salad any chance we get. This is a great recipe for entertaining because you can make it ahead, which means you have more time to hang out with your guests.

This salad is all about contrasts. The grapefruit adds a slightly tart punch to the creamy avocado, and the herbs add flavor and texture. This salad comes together in a flash because there’s no separate dressing—just a squeeze of lemon and a splash of olive oil.

Another addictive antipasto dish—the smoky grilled flavor here is a bright note with the marinade. This is best served at room temperature, so plan on making it in advance. Eggplant is extremely absorbent—don’t worry if it soaks up all of the olive oil. The oil provides plenty of flavor and helps prevent the eggplants from burning over the open flame.

To us, corn and ripe tomatoes are the very definition of summer. We never cook corn or serve tomatoes in their off-season, so when summer rolls around, we get really excited and include them in nearly every meal. Don’t be afraid to burn the corn and scallions a little here. The charred flavor mixes well with the lime juice and will help to balance the extreme sweetness of the ripe corn.